The invention relates to a method for rehydrating a predetermined quantity of food granules with a predetermined quantity of water which is applied to the food granules in a chamber.
A method of the type stated at the outset is employed particularly in vending machines or automatic machines for large kitchens which use water and rehydratable food granules to produce an edible dough which is formed into pieces of edible dough and then fried, boiled, roasted or baked. In this known method employed in automatic machines of this kind, a portion of food granules is fed into a chamber and then rehydrated with a quantity of water corresponding to a predetermined mixing ratio.
Any rehydratable granules which can be converted into an edible dough with water are suitable as food granules. For example, rehydratable potato granules can be used to produce a raw potato dough or a mixture of flour and starch can be used to produce pasta. Herbs and mixtures of herbs can be added to the food granules to suit the personal tastes of the users. To accelerate the mixing of the food granules with water, the water can be heated to a temperature of 80 to 90.degree. C.
Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,627 describes a vending machine for French fried potatoes which produces a potato dough from rehydratable potato granules and water in accordance with the method stated at the outset. The chamber used for rehydration is a cylinder of circular cross section which is open at both ends and the lower end of which serves as an outlet opening that can be closed by a pivotable plate. The cylinder is filled with the entire predetermined quantity of potato granules through its upper open end. A rehydrating unit is then pivoted over the feed opening and deposits the predetermined quantity of water uniformly on the food granules. However, in this arrangement only the upper layers of the food granules are rehydrated, while the lower layers of granules remain unwetted. Uniform rehydration of the food granules with water is therefore not possible.